


Buff Reasons

by Majtholdt



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: AU, Firefighter Daichi, M/M, Pining, Rating May Change, Slow Burn, character injury, doctor Kuroo, really gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-18 15:52:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7321336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Majtholdt/pseuds/Majtholdt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a serious accident at work, Daichi is admitted to a hospital for extensive burns.<br/>Despite the seriousness of the injury, Kuroo is more than happy to meet someone who is as good at making light of an unfortunate situation as he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gently toasted

It had been a slow day, which on its own was suspicious in Kuroo's opinion. There had been just general checkups from old patients, a few stitches for someone who wasn't quite the best when it came to chopping carrots, and a kid with a bead way too deep up her nose. Nothing major. Kuroo even had energy today, thanks to the day off he'd had yesterday.

One of the nurses was the first one to tell him about the fire. The firefighters hadn't been on the site for long, but it would most likely be soon that someone with some level of burns was going to be admitted to the hospital. A room was always ready for emergencies, but now the doctor had time to prepare mentally, too.

Kuroo was just checking up on a patient with large scar tissue down their ankle when his belt started beeping. Quickly excusing himself, he checked his pager and strode down the corridor and into the elevator. A few burn victims had already come in, but this was the first one he'd been alerted to. Third degree burns without a doubt.

It took him about three minutes to reach the right room by walking, and to his surprise, the gurney wasn't even there yet. Roughly ten seconds after that, loud noises could be heard from further away, and Kuroo backed away from the doors before they could hit him in the face while opening for the patient. Just in time too, the power the doors had when swinging open would have rendered him out of commission for at least a moment.

Immediately, Kuroo knew that this person had to be a fireman. If the clothing wouldn't have told him anything, the arm that had been cut out of the sleeve was way too muscled for some poor office worker or other. Ripped both figuratively and literally, the arm was pure blister and melted skin.

A quick look at the man's face didn't tell if he was conscious or not, but right as Kuroo was about to grab scissors to cut the suit open to reveal the rest of the burn, a violent coughing fit from the patient startled him. This fireman must have inhaled a fuck ton of smoke.

”Give him some oxygen n' slow painkillers and cut his top off,” Kuroo commanded and took a closer look at the burns. He would definitely need to remove some skin.  
”Give me the tray.”

After having his utensils rolled right next to him and having put on some gloves, Kuroo didn't hesitate to grab the arm properly in case the man tried to move. It was probable that most nerve endings were destroyed, and the guy was high on pain meds anyway so it wouldn't hurt even if he had some feeling left.

Suddenly he felt the arm he was holding twisting, and the damaged hand he'd been attending to grabbed his wrist _tightly_.

Maybe he should have expected it from a person that most likely had good reflexes from his job, but the vice grip on his arm still came as a surprise to Kuroo. He stopped his ministrations before even properly starting, so as not to accidentally damage the arm he was working on, and turned his head to look at the patient's face. He was awake. Well, at least to an extent. Probably as awake as one could be after being pumped full of pain meds.

The grip on his wrist slowly disappeared, and the man made a weird ” _whoa_ ” sound when his eyes focused. Kuroo lifted a brow. The medicines shouldn't cause anything _too_ close to ecstasy. Maybe that was just his normal waking up sound?

”Hey buddy,” the doctor said, resuming his work but putting aside the scalpel and only peeling off the skin on the parts where he didn't need to cut it.  
”I'd ask how many fingers am I holding up, but I'm holding none and your head seems to be fine for now. Well, except for, you know, the painkillers.” Kuroo glanced at the man from time to time, talking to make sure he remained calm. The firefighter seemed chill though, so Kuroo wasn't too worried about spontaneous panic or violence. You never knew, though.

Kuroo put note to how the man lifted his head enough to look at all of his limbs one at a time, before he leaned back with a sigh, filtered through the oxygen mask into a hissing sound.

”You'll be getting some kickass scars from this. Women love scars though, so fret not. We'll do our best to make these ones pretty,” Kuroo continued to talk. Taking his scalpel back to help him with the rest, he slowly cut the rest of the dead tissue off, holding the arm a bit harder again when the man coughed slightly.  
”Antibacterial cream, please,” the doctor asked, holding his hand out to take the antibacterial cream bottle handed to him, and immediately after that being given the one that's meant for burns specifically. He slathered the whole arm with the stuff, before starting to slowly dress it with burn dressing.

After the arm had gotten its first aid, Kuroo turned his attention to the man himself fully. ”I'm going to listen to your heart and lungs real quick,” he announced and put his stethoscope from his neck to his ears, and lightly pressed it against the dirty, sweaty and very muscled chest that had been bared after the shirt had been cut open. The fireman tensed at the feeling, which all in all was a good sign. The skin felt hot, almost like a radiator against Kuroo's hand. After a moment Kuroo changed place, and did the same thing for four times before he seemed happy.

”Nothing too bad or unexpected. Your lungs will be just fine in a few days, I think.” Kuroo nodded to himself, and then noticed the man trying to take off the oxygen mask. He was just about to help, but he seemed to be fine by himself, even with just one hand.

"Don't usually take my shirt off on the first date," the man rasped after getting the mask off his face.

Hands uselessly held up in the air from his almost-helping, Kuroo blinked slowly at the man while processing the croaky words directed at him. Then he straightened up and let out a spluttering laugh with his forearm over his mouth. It was both hygienic and convenient in covering Kuroo's delighted smile at having someone match his humour.

”Aww, makes me feel special,” Kuroo cooed as he took his arm off his face, grinning widely. Then he propped his hands on his hips and blinked lazily. The doctor stood there staring at the man a moment before he realized what he had forgotten.

”Aaah fuc- mmm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm doctor Kuroo. Just Kuroo is fine. You're in good hands and stuff.”

The fireman offered a weak but sincere smile at that.

"I'd shake your hand, but I can't," he said, not seeming too distressed by the fact that his other arm was almost completely out of commission.

Kuroo shrugged. ”Well, I mean, you do have two hands so technically you could. But we're trying to avoid shaking hands since, yanno, bacteria really loves hands”, Kuroo said, making some gestures and wiggling his fingers while talking. He stepped out of the way of one nurse moving the tray for cleaning.

”I could check your name from your papers, but I'm more into having an actual conversation, so...?”, the doctor said, and pulled a chair closer to the bed to sit down. He had some time before needing the be anywhere, and to be honest, a great looking fireman with at least some level of humor was now a more preferable choice than a group of tired nurses and doctors hovering over their coffee cups in the break room.

Kuroo leaned to prop his chin on his hands, and stared at the man curiously. His bangs fell over his eye, after the magic of a hastily applied hair clip wore off. _'It's probably in my hair somewhere'_ , Kuroo thought, slowly moving his fringe from his eyes, hoping that it would stay from hanging over his range of vision if handled gently.  
It didn't.

”Sawamura Daichi”, the fireman introduced himself, and held out his hand. For a fraction of a second the doctor thought that the man was going to offer his hand for a handshake despite what Kuroo had said. Then his eyes zeroed on the bright red hair clip on the hand outstretched towards him. So _that's_ where that went.

"Your hairstyle isn't very convenient for your job, is it?" Sawamura added, looking slightly amused. Kuroo huffed.

”Well, I'm afraid I'm kind of an inconvenient man in general. And it's not that bad, nothing a few hair clips can't fix”, Kuroo defended his hair. Just to make a point, he tried to swipe the hair off his face. He did not succeed in tucking it behind his ear, and the hair fell back on his face. He took the hair clip from Sawamura's fingers, and tried again. But no matter how much he tried to clip most of the hair, an irregular amount of hair still found its way to his face. After a few tries he huffed louder and gave up.

”I'll put it back in the restroom, a mirror makes it kinda easier”, he said as an explanation, and freed his hair from the clip again. He put it on his pocket for safekeeping. Maybe the patient was still out of it enough to forget about all that later. A man could hope.

"I see”, Sawamura said, and his amusement was very apparent in his voice. Kuroo could hear the _'I told you so'_ , hanging in the air, but ignored it with purpose. It seemed to be funny enough for Sawamura to laugh, which ended up trailing into a painful-sounding cough.

Kuroo cleared his throat, not noticing how Sawamura was patting his pocket as if searching for something, and quickly changed the subject. Misdirection is the best course of action.

”So, uh. Can I ask what happened to get you so... grilled?” Kuroo asked, his eyes trailing the walls before returning back to the man in front of him. Sawamura was holding a silvery thing at him, and looked a bit confused at the question.

"Fire?" Was his dubious answer.

The doctor took the object in his hands, and blinked at it slowly before realizing what it was. Somehow being handed a silver compact mirror after all that seemed a bit embarrassing. Surely his hair wasn't that bad. Just a bit... fluffy. Kuroo glanced at the patient suspiciously, before thanking him quietly. He opened the mirror and fished the hair clip from his pocket.

”...Well that's news.” Kuroo said as a slightly late reply, and gave a sarcastic stare and a smile from over the small mirror as he tried to calm down his hair once again.  
”Never thought I'd see the day that fire caused burns.”

It was hard to put the pin on one handed. Instead of holding the mirror, the doctor propped it against Sawamura's thigh and carefully used both of his hands to get his hair properly pinned. Through some miracle, it seemed to actually work.

”I was thinking more like how do you burn your whole arm like that, with your suit and all?” His hair was in place again, at least for now. Kuroo shook his head slightly to the side to make sure that the pin held, and then snapped the mirror shut and almost placed it on Sawamura's chest. With the minor burns there though, it probably wouldn't be a good idea. Changing his mind, he slipped it instead straight to the man's pocket. Sawamura didn't even seem to mind.

"Flame retardant clothing isn't completely fireproof, you know. When oil or alcohol is involved is when things get nasty. Just a dumb mistake on my part", he said calmly.

Kuroo nodded a few times at Sawamura's explanation, not quite knowing what to say to that. He got the feeling that the fireman himself didn't remember what happened very well. If he did remember, Kuroo didn't want to bother him too much on the subject.

”Yeah, I believe you. Stuff can get hecked up real fast sometimes”, Kuroo said quietly. He himself had never personally been in a building that was in serious flames – some gas leaks and a room getting completely ruined before the fire could be contained were things that had happened in his college, but he had never really been close to the fire. But he had seen his share of burn victims. Daichi was lucky it was just his arm, and not his face or feet. He actually had _fingers_ still.

"It's a lot more simple than people-", Sawamura had to pause to cough, "-make it out to be", he finished.

Kuroo looked at the man, thoughtful. He was pretty capable of having an actual conversation, even though it must have been less than an hour since he was admitted in and he'd been out cold in the ambulance.

”You sleepy? I'm quite impressed how awake you are, to be honest”, Kuroo admitted. The slow painkillers had the effect of making a person really sluggish and sleepy.

Sawamura shut his eyes in a way that was almost exasperated. "Me too."

It took a few stretched out seconds before the other man seemed to realize he didn't finish the thought.

"Painkillers don't work on me as well as I'd like them to. I would have loved to be conscious enough to inform the nurses of that before they gave them to me", he explained.

”Wait... painkillers don't work on you well? Can you feel the pain from your arm?” Kuroo asked, his brows furrowed worriedly. He straightened his back and glanced at the arm wrapped in white gel dressings. Burn wounds were generally really nasty when the the nerves were freshly fried.

”I can give you more if it hurts, just say the word”, he added, half off the chair already. He himself was really bad with pain, so the idea of painkillers not working properly was... slightly alarming to him, to say the least.

Sawamura just blinked in confusion. The corners of his mouth twitched upward, a little incredulous as he turned his head to look up at the ceiling.

"Well... Yes?" It almost sounded like a question more than it sounded like an answer.

Kuroo was already taking a small bottle from a cabinet and putting together a syringe. Now the doctor felt kind of bad for holding the other's arm that roughly earlier. The fireman was calm, and would probably not have hit him even accidentally even when not held down. Of course Kuroo couldn't have known that beforehand, but still.

"It hurts, yeah, but let's not OD me my first day in", Sawamura said, sounding concerned.

”Don't worry, I'm a doctor”, Kuroo reassured, snorting at his own joke. Which strictly speaking wasn't really a joke, but still kinda hilarious in his opinion. Sawamura seemed to think so too, at least if the laugh was anything to go by. Kuroo returned to the patient's side, showing the syringe to the fireman with raised brows.

”This is a very small amount, but should numb you somewhat. I'm sorry for being so rough earlier, normally people shouldn't feel a thing when in the state you're in.”

Kuroo grabbed Sawamura's left arm, and turned his own arm so that he couldn't see when the needle punctured his skin. One less sense to feel the pain that way, even though it probably was just the tiniest pinch compared to the pain coming from the arm on the other side.

"Yeah. All right. Thanks”, was all Sawamura answered with, grimacing a little at the sensation of the needle pricking his skin.

Kuroo calmly disposed of the syringe and put the bottle back to where it belonged. If that didn't make Sawamura tired and numb, nothing under overdose would. The doctor really hoped that the fireman would get at least some amount of relief for his pains thanks to that last dose.

"As much as I'm enjoying the company, don't you have places to be?" the fireman suddenly questioned. Kuroo looked at the patient behind himself and grinned.

”Well, I'm on a break now s-”

A loud beeping from the pager on his belt interrupted him, and he quickly took it off his belt to see a room number on the small screen, no explanation whatsoever attached. Sawamura's focus flicked down to the sudden and obnoxious beeping noise from the pager, a single brow arching. Kuroo moved his eyes from it to Sawamura and made a clicking sound with his tongue.

”I _was_ on a break, but not anymore it seems”, Kuroo said, in case his expression wasn't obvious enough.

"Duty calls. I know the feeling", Sawamura said. Kuroo smiled at that.

”I need to go, but I'll come check on your burns later”, Kuroo promised, and backed towards the doors accompanied by finger guns and a small smirk. The smile Sawamura gave at that was a little sceptical, but not antagonistic, all white teeth and dimples.

"Very reliable, doctor."

Kuroo squinted his eyes when his back hit the door, but it gave way and the doctor disappeared down the hallway.

It was refreshing to be dealing with someone who didn't take everything so seriously and understood his bad sense of humor, Kuroo thought as he continued to his next patient.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be a POV change (or two). Kuroo's POV is written by Majtholdt, and Daichi's is written by zaveid!


	2. You could get sued for this

It was only after Daichi noticed he could breathe through the smoke filling his lungs that he realized he’d been dreaming, and he opened his eyes to the monotonous buzz of the (too bright) lights over his head and the imaginary smell of soot still lingering in his nose. Nightmares were normal, in his job. He was putting himself in danger on the daily, and it was to be expected, especially after an accident like his.  
On a scale from one to unpleasant, Daichi figured waking up subconsciously convinced you’re going to suffocate was pretty high up there, along with Sunday drivers, hospital food, and actually being suffocated for real.  
Pretty harrowing, but all things considered, this wasn’t the worst dream he’d had (the memory of the Vice Principal’s toupee never failed to raise goosebumps down his neck), but that didn’t make this one any less unpleasant.

Vaguely, Daichi recalled where exactly he was, and the events leading up to this moment slowly started flooding back to him. He must have fallen asleep after being treated. That train of thought lead him back to the doctor, despite the fact that the painkillers left the encounter hazy in the back of his mind. He didn’t remember what his first impression of the man had been, but he did remember that the second one had been vague disdain, because Daichi had never met a doctor in his life that had so quickly come across like the type he couldn’t trust.  
Normally, he would have figured he’d dislike this kind of person (probably the kind who never said things straight out, always making people guess what they’re thinking rather than actually saying it out loud), but he couldn’t bring himself to be too harsh of a judge toward a guy whose job it was to make sure he didn’t die.

There was a… Tentative appreciation there. He thought, maybe if he’d met the guy in a different circumstance, he might think differently. Whether that would sway him more toward a positive or a negative impression, Daichi had absolutely no idea.

Shaking off the sensation of goosebumps crawling up the back of his neck left over from his nightmare (and surprisingly not a toupee this time), Daichi turned his head to scan the room, his eyes settling on the small pile of things left there for him to find once he came to. Looks like he’d slept through a visit from one of his coworkers. The idea of being seen in such a vulnerable position was a little embarrassing, sure, but even he realized that how unnecessary that kind of pride was.

About an hour had passed after Daichi had picked up the book left for him on his bedside table, and his focus was slipping. By the time he’d noticed that he’d been skimming without retaining a single word of the past two pages, there was a knock on the door. He had been fully prepared to give a smile that was sheer formality in response to what he assumed would be a nurse, but when he looked up to greet the guest, the attempt ended up turning into more of a grimace than anything. It was the doctor he’d met before, and it took a grand total of two seconds for Daichi to remember his first impression.  
The small “Whoa,” he’d barely remembered even voicing came to mind in particular, and Daichi’s brows formed a crease at the centre. What even was that? Was it in response to his looks? Sure, Daichi was never one to pretend he didn’t understand what could possibly be considered attractive between both genders, regardless of sexuality, but since when did it matter what a licensed medical professional looked like? Fortunately, he was able to refrain from acting out the sudden and overwhelming impulse to cover his face with his hands.

“You’re awake.” Kuroo mused, as if the observation carried more weight than it actually did, and the words snapped him out of his previous train of thought. The grimace faded, and Daichi collected his expression into a far more polite kind of smile, one that didn’t quite crinkle the bridge of his nose like a real one would have.

“Unfortunately, yes.” He tried not to make it sound like he would have preferred to sleep through this encounter. Kuroo didn’t seem to notice. Instead, the man drew closer to check on the heavy bandaging over the worst of his burns. As far as Daichi knew, they were pretty fresh, but Kuroo clearly saw something he didn’t, because he was backing toward the cabinets to grab new ones.

“Unfortunately? Are you in pain again?” Kuroo sounded like he took Daichi a lot more seriously than intended, and Daichi was content to pretend he wasn’t impressed by the man’s ability to turn off that awful sense of humour for two seconds to actually do his job in a way that wasn’t incredibly tiring.

“Well. Not really in pain, no.”  
He could feel heat crawling up the back of his neck, something he was more than keen to suppress.  
“I guess I’m just a little restless.” Saying that made him feel silly. Like he was a kid. Currently, he had bigger issues than not being allowed to get up and do things, but Daichi had already been scolded once for trying to get up and get himself a drink of water. What was the big deal? It’s not like his legs got the worst of the burns.

The look Kuroo gave him in response to that was something he couldn’t decipher, less harsh than the kinds of smirks he tended to make liberal use of. Daichi pushed it to the back of his mind, because for some reason, it made him want to look away. After a pause and the sound of rustling papers as the doctor checked through what Daichi assumed were his files, Kuroo snapped on a pair of rubber gloves like every doctor in any drama series that has ever existed and spoke up again.  
“Sitting in one place for a long time does that. Unfortunately, you won’t be discharged for at least a few days. There are some spots in your arm that can be classified as third degree burns, and we still need to determine whether or not you’ll need to be scheduled for a skin transplantation and stuff like that.”

“Some spots.”  
Daichi frowned visibly, but there wasn’t a chance he’d actually complain about the fact that he’d have to stay here longer than he wanted to. Him being in good health was kind of mandatory if he were to ever continue working after this in the future. Thankfully, Kuroo was a bit too preoccupied removing the bandaging in order to replace it with a fresh wrap to notice.  
"I had figured the whole thing was just going to be one big third degree burn. Here I thought I was an glass-half-full sort of guy."  
Daichi realized he hadn’t properly answered the question, so the words came out a little awkward and belated.

“... I did. Get some rest, I mean. I would have liked to get more, though.”  
Kuroo grinned in understanding as he reached to dispose of the old dressing.

“I'd be seriously worried if you didn't get any sleep, to be honest. Slight immunity to painkillers or not, I don't think dosing you like a horse will end well." 

“Honestly, I’d rather be capable of holding coherent conversations.” A pause, and Daichi gave a small smile, tipping his chin up to stare at the ceiling. He flexed his fingers as he thought. There was definitely something wrong there, but he’d wait for a good time to mention it.  
“... I feel like the nurses are getting a little annoyed with me trying to start conversation, though.”

“It’s more fun for us if the patient can actually hold a conversation once in a while.” Kuroo reassured, occasionally glancing up to make sure Daichi knew he was listening.  
“You can try to talk to the nurses, but if they’re in a hurry…. Well, that sucks. Luckily there are people like me that love talking to the patients, hurry be damned.”  
“Well, that’s good news.” Daichi wasn’t sure if he actually saw that as good news or not; it was a little hard to tell when he was distracted by burn ointment being applied to the still-tender parts of his skin. He didn’t hate talking to Kuroo. The way the guy carried himself could be a little infuriating, but Daichi was sure he meant well.  
Probably.  
“It’s nice to talk. I don’t have a lot to do in here. I feel like I have a lot of pent up energy after getting so used to long jogs.”

Daichi noticed the doctor’s smile fade to a grimace as he checked over the burns. Judging by how that area was the spot that started hurting first once his painkillers started wearing off, it was probably pretty bad.

”...I may have been underrating the damage. It's several spots. I think roughly half of your arm is third degree, and the rest is second degree”  
Daichi was glad Kuroo wasn’t the type to sugar-coat things. He couldn’t do much more than nod in response.

On the topic of unfortunate things that had happened to him in the past few days, there was a pause as Daichi considered how he’d put his most recent concerns into words, waiting for Kuroo to finish bandaging his wounds. When he was sure he was finished, Daichi heaved a heavy sigh, raising the hand to wiggle his fingers again, testing them.

“Look, I really don’t want to be that guy, but.”  
Daichi held out his burnt hand to Kuroo.  
“I realised it a while ago, but I’m about ninety-five percent sure I’ve got some broken fingers.”

 

===================================================================================

 

Kuroo was just finishing up, and starting to head for the cabinet that had more bandages, when Sawamura started talking again. Kuroo turned around, eyebrows raised and a questioning look in his eyes. His hint of a smirk dropped when the patient finished what he was saying.

 

”What?”

 

In a few strides Kuroo was back to Sawamura's side, and he grabbed a hold of the raised hand. Just a few nudges with his thumb against the fingers told that at least two of them were fractured. The burns made the skin so swollen to begin with, that no one had noticed the swelling that came from broken bones.

 

”Oh my god, they are broken. What the hell-- no one checked these?” Kuroo looked at Sawamura incredulously. Okay, maybe it was partially his own fault for not checking, but he had been called to treat burns and that's what he'd done. He should have realized that the man didn't have any treatment except for the one he got from the paramedics, and they were focused on the burns and making sure Sawamura was breathing.

"Well, no. No one checked them. They don't really look broken with the burns, so why would they?" Sawamura said slowly, frowning a little in confusion. He didn't seem to think of this as such a big deal.

 

”I'm so sorry, I can straighten the bones right now if you want. I'm sending you to X-ray later though, just in case”, the doctor said, looking at Sawamura with wide eyes.

 

There was a somewhat awkward silence as Sawamura just nodded slowly at the mention of an X-ray.

That was the moment Kuroo's hairpin decided that it was time for the curtain to fall, and his bangs fell free and came down to cover his other eye.

Sawamura brought his hand up to muffle a laugh as he looked away, giving Kuroo's hand (still awkwardly holding his broken fingers up) a friendly squeeze.

 

"Honestly, it's okay."

 

Maybe Kuroo was overreacting a bit. Just maybe.  
His hair falling on his face kind of broke his focus. He blinked and shook his hair a bit to make sure it didn't go to his eye. Sawamura's laugh made his face feel hot, and the squeeze on his hand didn't really help.

 

”...fine”, Kuroo said, accidentally sounding a bit grumpy in his embarrassment. He took a long breath, let it out, and pushed one bone back to place. The bone being shifted back into place had Sawamura giving an almost full-body twitch, swearing under his breath.  
Without giving much warning Kuroo did the same to the other one, and then swiped his palm against the fingers to make sure they felt even. That got a much smaller response.

"Jesus," Sawamura breathed, the word trailing off into a somewhat breathy laugh.

"You're pretty good at that. Deal with broken fingers often, don't you?"

”I'm a doctor and I have a shift in the first aid ward – what do you think?” Kuroo said with a raised brow, his smile slowly returning to his face.

 

"Yeah yeah. Super impressive. I've got the vapors."

 

”To be honest, it's going to suck to have your fingers both burned and broken. Can't really bandage them to their neighbors with the burns. You'll just have to be, like, super careful for now, until I come up with something. Don't use your hand at all”, Kuroo said, carefully making sure that the rest of the fingers felt fine before he lowered the hand on the bed. Immediately Sawamura lifted his hand a little to look at it. He was about to wiggle his fingers to test, but the warning stopped him, and he just slowly set it back down.

"Roger that, Doctor."

 

After that had been taken care of, Kuroo finally could go and get the bandages he was trying to retrieve earlier.

 

”I said to call me Kuroo, but I have to admit that the title does sound nice on its own, too”, Kuroo said when he returned to Sawamura's side with the brand new bandages at hand.

"Unless you snuck in here wearing a white labcoat to harrass me while I recover, and are not actually a doctor, there's no reason not to call you that, is there?"

Kuroo rolled his eyes and pushed his hair slightly to the side, before he started wrapping the white fabric around Sawamura's arm with focus. The man grimaced, but Kuroo focused on the bandage.

 

”Any other hidden damage I should be aware of? Dislocated hip? Ingrown toe nails? A darkness somewhere deep within your soul?” Kuroo gave the other man an innocent look, before focusing on the rest on the bandaging. After he was done, he leaned back and tried to look at his patient as a whole even though his sphere of vision was only half of what it was supposed to be.

 

”...I think your chest needs something”, Kuroo said after a moment, and without further ado put his gloves back on, squirted some cream on his fingers and started slathering the stuff on the minor burns on Sawamura's upper body, especially on the side that had gotten the worst of the damage.

 

"I'm very lucky I'm not ticklish, or this would get weird fast", Sawamura said. Kuroo turned his attention to the fireman, and was met with raised brows and and steady stare.

 

There was a possibility that Kuroo was kind of tired. The fact that he didn't feel bothered even though he realized that this could be a bit strange worked as a confirmation for that too.

 

”Not ticklish? Lucky guy, us normal people have to avoid opportunists all the time”, Kuroo said, sighing dramatically. As if there could be a person behind every door, crouched and waiting for an unexpecting, ticklish person to walk by. You never knew.

 

Sawamura's brows raised higher, and the slope of his shoulders relaxed a little as he just shook his head.

"My bad. Didn't mean to flaunt my non-ticklish privilege in front of the noses of you 'normal people.' Guess there must be something in the water near my home town."

 

Kuroo lifted his eyes from the well formed muscles (that he had not even noticed he was staring at, to be honest), and was met with Sawamura staring at him. If he noticed the staring at muscles, Sawamura didn't say anything about it. That look made Kuroo feel a bit more self-conscious, but instead of immediately backing off, the doctor made sure that he got all the spots he could reach without Sawamura moving much.

 

”I could put some on your back too now that I started, care to lean over?”

 

Sawamura complied wordlessly, leaning forward to reveal a well muscled, tanned and freckled back, littered with scrapes and large yellowing bruises. The burns from his shoulder continued down his shoulder blade and up the side and back of his neck, but that was about the worst of it. Just by looking at it, it was easy to guess something probably caved in on him.

 

"Ouch, you sure you didn't break any ribs?" Kuroo said with a raised brow that Daichi most likely wasn't even able to see.

 

"If I broke any ribs, I'd be having a lot more trouble breathing", Daichi pointed out, head leaned forward and out of the way to make it easier on Kuroo's reach.

 

"Fair point."

Kuroo got some more burn cream on his fingers and carefully rubbed it on the wounds. These burns were looking much better than the ones on Daichi's arm, which really was to be expected. The only third degree burns seemed to be on the arm, in the end. Kuroo noticed some goosebumps on Sawamura's shoulders and biceps, probably because the cream was cool.

 

Kuroo took extra care when putting the stuff on Daichi's neck. Ticklish or not, the area was bound to be sensitive, especially after being burned. Sawamura did tense up at the feelinng, and Kuroo didn't slather on much more to make it less uncomfortable for the other man. Kuroo almost reached to check if Sawamura's scalp had suffered any damage from the fire, even though his hair seemed fine. In the end though, Kuroo's gloves were slimy and he had most likely made the situation weird enough already.

 

Kuroo backed away, and undressed the gloves before throwing them in the trash near the bed.

 

"I just did the full luxury care on you, instead of waiting for a nurse to do it. I can't believe this. Maybe I am a bit tired", Kuroo said, tilting his head slightly to the side to have a bit better view of his handiwork from behind his hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> neither of us know anything about how doctors work im genuinely sorry


End file.
